


black, white, red

by SuperBlondie



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bathing/Washing, Blood, Claiming Bites, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Happy Ending, Human Experimentation, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, M/M, MAMA Era Powers (EXO), Marking, Minor Character Death, OT12 (EXO), Sharing Clothes, Torture, bc i love it and u can pry it from my cold dead hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:54:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23545714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperBlondie/pseuds/SuperBlondie
Summary: Jongdae twists his wrists within the cold metal of the handcuffs and bites the inside of his cheek at the pain. He's never liked pain, but this grounds him, keeps him locked in the present instead of lost inside his own head. He counts his heartbeats, memorizes every detail of the soldiers guarding the door.If he ever gets out of here, he's going after them, after every single one of the Red Force's legion.
Relationships: Kim Jongdae | Chen/Kim Minseok | Xiumin/Lu Han
Comments: 24
Kudos: 218
Collections: EXO-M Fic Fest R2





	black, white, red

**Author's Note:**

> This was for EXO-M fest prompt 60!
> 
> So this was actually going to be something else entirely. I had 6k written taking this prompt in a different direction and then didn't touch it for months...so I had to scrap it and started writing this two days before the deadline alskjdfkafk. So I hope you all like it! (also i'm sorry this didn't go the way you'd envisioned it, prompter! It was going to, but then life happened and I realized the fic would've taken too long ;-;)
> 
> As always, a big thank you to my beta, [Aarushi,](https://twitter.com/Aarushi_c18)!

Jongdae watches the soldiers guarding the only entrance and exit of the tiny room he's being kept in with disdain. The square room is already so small that there's hardly enough space for Jongdae and the tiny metal bed they handcuffed him to, let alone two beefy, testosterone-pumped alpha soldiers with tranquilizer guns.

He doesn't know why they've bothered to keep the soldiers, why he's still in handcuffs. After so many rounds of failed interrogations and painfully successful beatings, he's in no shape to fight back. There are bruises and lacerations up and down his arms and legs, a rib or two cracked from a steel-toed boot slamming against his side. His wrists ache, bruised underneath the metal of the handcuffs from when he first awoke inside the little room in the middle of the Red Force's base and he'd pulled and strained against the restraints with all his strength.

The cheap mattress scratches at Jongdae's bare legs. The scientists had taken his clothes - his  _ pack's  _ clothes - and left him with only a plain white shirt and uncomfortably short white shorts. He shifts to alleviate the discomfort and grimaces when the thin cotton rides up further on his thighs.

The soldier on the right adjusts his grip on his gun, nostrils flaring as he stares at Jongdae with hungry, greedy eyes. Rancid pheromones fill the air. Jongdae crinkles his nose at the smell, instincts snarling in his head at the suggestion of another alpha in his space.

The scars on either side of his neck throb and Jongdae reaches for the feeling, for the mating bond sitting behind the wall of the drug-induced fog the Red Force forces on him every morning with an injection of black fluid. His mates are on the other side of the fog, so close but so far away.

He can almost feel them, and that makes it that much worse when he reaches for them and meets empty, cold nothingness.

Jongdae twists his wrists within the cold metal of the handcuffs and bites the inside of his cheek at the pain. He's never liked pain, but this grounds him, keeps him locked in the present instead of lost inside his own head. He counts his heartbeats, memorizes every detail of the soldiers guarding the door.

If he ever gets out of here, he's going after them, after every single one of the Red Force's legion.

But he doesn't think he'll get out. He's going to die in here, alone, probably splayed out on some examination table as the Red Force tries and fails to harness whatever it is that gave him his powers. That's his only use to them anyway, a possible path towards creating their own super-soldiers to combat EXO.

Jongdae's not useful as an informant, that's for sure.

New bruises are still in the process of forming on his back. The interrogators had tried their damnedest to make him break this time. They'd wanted names this time, his pack's  _ real  _ names. Not Xiumin or Lay or Suho, but Minseok, Yixing, and Junmyeon.

Jongdae had turned his nose up at them. If they couldn't get his own name out of him, couldn't get him to make a single sound that wasn't a cry of pain, how in the hell did they ever expect him to give up his pack - his  _ alphas? _

Jongdae would rather die than risk the Red Force getting their hands on his pack.

And so, he came to terms that this will likely be his fate. The chance his pack will find him grows slimmer with every passing day as his scent fades from the little blood he'd managed to smear along the way as he was transported to this facility in the middle of the desert. He's gone been weeks, maybe months; if they haven't found him by now, they likely never will.

It eats him alive to know that the last memory his mates will have to remember him by is him being hit with one of the Red Force's ungodly strong tranquilizers. The last thing they felt before the mating bond was cut off was pure panic, screaming  _ pleasepleasepleaseMinseokLuhanhelp! _

They'll never forgive themselves for letting him get stranded in the middle of a battle. Luhan had tried to pull him back; Jongdae felt that strange sensation of being grabbed by telekinesis before he blacked out, but it wasn't enough. He'd just been too far away.

They'd been ambushed during a fucking picnic. The battle was chaotic from the start. Bullets flew, cones of flames shot in all direction as the fucking Earth shook, walls of ice erupted to give Jongin a safe place to pop to if he got caught out. They weren't prepared but they were holding the Red Force off well enough for Jongin to transport them one by one to safety.

Jongdae remembers seeing Baekhyun nearly take a bullet to the leg and seeing red. He remembers going after the soldier responsible with the rage of a storm and losing all sense of direction.

He remembers catching the soldier with a lightning bolt strong enough to knock him off his feet. Then, he remembers looking up and realizing that he'd gotten too far out of Luhan's range moments before the tranquilizer hit him in shoulder and the world went black.

Tears burn the backs of Jongdae's eyes and he turns his head to the side to stare at the wall as they run down his cheeks. It's his own fault for getting himself stranded. He knew better than to leave Luhan's range unless absolutely necessary. But Luhan is going to blame himself for the rest of his life because Jongdae lost his cool.

"What're you crying about, omega?" One soldier steps forward, too close. He stares down at Jongdae with a sneer.

Jongdae snarls back. His hands curl into fists and he waits for lightning to leap from his fingers and knock the soldier off his feet. Nothing comes, not even the slightest crackle of static. Jongdae turns his face into his shoulder.

He lost his powers when he lost his mates.

He doesn't think he's getting any of them back.

"Chen's a mouthy one," the soldier laughs. "Wonder how his alphas dealt with him."

The other soldier, the one that's still looking at him like he wants to devour him, smirks, "Probably glad he's gone. We did them a favor taking him off their hands."

They're wrong. They're wrong and he  _ knows  _ they're wrong, but it still stings. Minseok and Luhan love him, they courted him and sat up with him through his worst nights, forgave him when his mouth got the best of him and promised that they'd love him until their bones turned into dust.

Jongdae misses them so much it's a physical ache in his chest.

The door to his little prison opens and the interrogators walk in, one alpha woman and a beta man. They walk in with cruel smiles on their faces and duffle bags full of weapons in their arms.

The man drags the chair they like to restrain him to for these sessions into the middle of the room and the soldiers come to pick him up and force him into the chair. He used to fight them. He used to fight them with all his might, but he's been worn down, tired, and in too much pain to do much more than just hang limply in the soldiers' holds.

"We've got a few more questions for you, Chen. About your alphas. If you answer, we'd have a much easier time bringing them to you. Don't you miss them? Don't you want to see them again," the woman simpers.

The man crouches down to look Jongdae in the eyes. "Tell us, what is Xiumin's real name? What did you call him? He loved you, didn't he? Look at your neck, of course he did. You're his omega, so he must've told you his name. What is it?"

When Jongdae doesn't respond, the woman begins unzipping one of the duffle bags to show Jongdae a riding crop and a bullwhip. The man asks him the question again. Jongdae grits his teeth and braces for pain.

\---

Jongdae knows something is wrong when the scientists come for him after days of languishing in his tiny, sterile prison with only the soldiers and the ceiling to keep him company. He hasn't seen the interrogators in so long that his bruises have started to heal and he'd started to wonder if the Red Force had finally gotten tired of trying to wheedle information out of him.

It seems like he's right. Two betas and an omega open the door to his room, wearing lab coats. One has a clipboard, another a new pair of thicker, more painful-looking handcuffs.

"Take him to examination room twenty-seven, if you don't mind, gentlemen" one of them says.

The soldiers unlock the handcuffs and haul him off the bed. One holds Jongdae by the wrists while the other shoves the barrel of a rifle into his back to force him to walk. Unused to supporting his own weight after so long chained to a bed or a chair, Jongdae's legs almost give out on him after a few steps.

Someone laughs and his cheeks burn in humiliation. He hates that the Red Force gets to see him like this, has seen him cry from pain and misery. It's seen him weak and he can't fucking stand it.

The hallways are very much like the room he's been kept in, white, clean, devoid of any sign of life or comfort. The soldiers and scientists force him forward. They pass by door after door. Jongdae wonders which one, if any, would lead him to freedom if he had the chance to go through it. He wonders if the Red Force managed to capture any other members of his pack and if they're hiding them behind those doors. Subjecting them to the same torture he's had to endure.

Jongdae reaches for Minseok and Luhan again. It's a habit that's yet to break even after all this time. He's still so used to reaching for them and feeling them react instantaneously, warmth and attention flooding down the bond.

He feels nothing now. Won't feel anything ever again.

He's led through the hallways, past the doors, until he comes to a pair of large double-doors at the end of a narrow hallway. It reminds him of the medical dramas Baekhyun likes to watch.

Through the doors, however, Jongdae can't help but think of the sci-fi movies Chanyeol always puts on when it's his turn to choose for pack movie night. The room is large, but most of the space is taken up by computers that line the walls and trays of medical equipment. In the middle of the room is a single dentist chair with an IV stand beside it full of red liquid.

To no surprise, Jongdae is dragged to the chair and strapped down with three-point restraints across his legs, hips, and chest. His arms are then handcuffed to the arm rests with the extra-heavy duty handcuffs provided by the lone omega scientist.

He looks her dead in the eyes as she handcuffs him. A tendril of satisfaction runs through him when she blanches, obviously unnerved. Her hands shake as she locks in his other wrist and he can almost imagine what it would look like to shock her, bring down a bolt of lightning to destroy the entire building and escape.

He closes his eyes, just for a moment, just to picture the sunlight and the fresh air, his pack waiting for him just outside the door.

"So, you've shown that no amount of pain will break you," Jongdae opens his eyes as one of the other scientists steps forward after the omega scurries back towards the computers. "Our intelligence team was actually quite impressed with how well you tolerated physical torture. You would have made an excellent addition to our operation, still would, if you came to your senses."

Jongdae sneers at him and considers spitting, but the soldiers are still in the room and he doesn't want to be shot with another tranquilizer. He used to goad them into shooting by thrashing wildly and trying to escape his bonds, but he hates losing time.

He's not sure how much he has left anymore, and he's greedy for each and every second, no matter how miserable.

There's always the chance that the block on the mating bond will lift, even just for a moment, and he doesn't want to miss it—miss  _ them _ .

The scientist continues speaking, tugging on his tie and adjusting his glasses. They're ugly and Zitao would throw a fit if he saw them, the fashionista he is. "But as you haven't been responding to usual tactics, we have had to devise others. You don't seem to care much about what happens to you, but what about your alphas?"

Jongdae stiffens, eyes widening as the last scientist comes and inserts the IV into his arm. The red liquid begins flowing down the tube into the needle, into his arm, into his  _ body _ . The lights above him are so bright, blinding, casting the red running down into his veins starkly against his skin. 

There’s a clock on the wall ticking loud enough to hear, but it’s drowned out by the way His heart races with fear; he starts to fight against the restraints but the straps over his body are  _ strong  _ and he can't move more than a squirm.

"We believe that this chemical will disrupt and distort your mating bond." Jongdae can already feel it, his head filling up with pressure as the mating bond starts to waver and shake. It's almost as if he and his mates just had a horrific, uncontrollable,  _ violent  _ fight and the bond just can't take it. It is almost as if one of his mates  _ died _ .

"This should, in turn, cause unbearable agony to both you and your mates. It's very quick to wear off once the source has been removed, so all you'll have to do to stop it is agree to give us the answers we want."

The pressure turns into pain turns into  _ agony _ . Jongdae writhes, pulling at the restraints until the heavier cuffs begin cutting into the thin skin of his wrists. He knows why they switched handcuffs now though.

Omegas are well-known for exhibiting insane strength when the mating bond is threatened, particularly after a mate's death.

Whimpers force their way out of Jongdae's throat. Tears fall from his eyes in rivers as the pain only ratchets higher with each breath. He chances a glance at the IV bag and sees that it's still almost entirely full. They could probably keep him here, like this, for  _ hours _ .

"It's releasing too slowly, make it faster. He's not in nearly enough pain."

The next wave of pain hits him so hard he chokes on a scream. It feels like his head is going to explode, fire running through his veins. Every single nerve in his body screams and he wants it to stop so badly.

Minseok and Luhan are feeling this too, probably dropped to the ground clutching their heads because they weren't ready, they didn't know this was coming. What if they were doing something dangerous? What if they were on a mission and blew their cover or got caught? What if they stop looking for him because they think he's been killed?

Jongdae sobs. His mates probably think he's  _ dead _ .

In a panic, he reaches for the mating bond again and again and again. He throws his entire being at the wall between them, screaming, clawing, begging. He needs them—he  _ needs  _ them. The scars on his neck throb in time with his heartbeat and memories of the night they were made fly past them, moonlight, sweat, laughter, moans, a full bathtub, takeout food eaten on a bare mattress because the sheets were in the dryer.

_ 'Love you, Jongdae.' _

' _ Really? You mean it?' _

_ 'You're the only omega either of us have ever looked at. How could we not mean it?' _

And then Jongdae chokes on his own tears, gasping for air as something cracks and warmth and attention and  _ lovelovelove _ flood into his head, into body, soothing him from the inside out.

_ JongdaeJongdaeJongdaeloveyouloveyouwhereareyou _

_ hurryIneedyoupleasehurrydon'tleavemeloveyou _

_ loveyouloveyouloveyououromegawe'recomingKazakhstanwe'recoming _

The wall slams back down on the mating bond as the IV bag runs out of red fluid. Jongdae blacks out from pain and panic a few seconds later.

\---

The scientists don’t know that the mating bond opened up for those few precious seconds. Jongdae assumes that, at least, because when he comes to in his little room no one is panicking that Minseok and Luhan were able to feel him, able to feel where he was. Minseok had said Kazakhstan with absolute certainty and Jongdae feels a shaking sliver of hope that maybe he’ll get out of this alive.

But the scientists haven’t seemed to notice that he isn’t as downtrodden and worn thin as he was before. They’re the ones watching him over him now, keeping him in examination room twenty-seven nearly all the time; he hasn’t seen the interrogators since before the scientists and the red fluid. They haven’t tried to pump him full of that stuff again either, seemed a little disturbed by how he didn’t show any signs of fear when they threatened him with it.

Why would he be scared? Whatever chemicals they put in that stuff counter-acted the drugs they give him ever so often to block his powers and his mating bond. If anything, he  _ wants  _ them to torture him with it. But he can’t let them know that, can’t give them anything to hold over his head. 

After they failed to get any answers out of him the last time, it seems to Jongdae like the Red Force’s focus has switched entirely to his powers. 

The scientists don’t ask him questions about his pack anymore, just his powers. They want to know how he uses them, what they feel like, when they manifested, what the exact limits of his powers are. He tells them nothing and smirks when the scientists frown and groan and pour over their computers like that will have the answers they need. 

They take his blood first, vials full to study his DNA and see where his mutation lies. Jongdae’s DNA, the DNA of his entire pack, is so different from regular human DNA that the scientists would have an easier time creating a cure for cancer than pinpointing what exact genes have allowed him to summon lightning from the sky and shoot electricity from his palms. 

He doesn’t tell them that Junmyeon and Yifan have come to the conclusion that their DNA changes when they use their powers, making it impossible for anyone else to manufacture their mutations. 

Still, they try. They compare his DNA to that of every other mutated human in their library and scream at him when nothing comes even remotely close to matching up.

More blood, hair, skin cells, spit, Jongdae watches silently as the scientists take and take and run themselves ragged searching for answers no one can give. Sometimes they just scream out their frustrations at him.

Jongdae can’t bring himself to care. He counts the ceiling tiles to keep himself occupied as the scientists run themselves in circles. Sometimes he counts the number of computer screens hung up on the walls, the buttons on the control panels. He watches the scientists sign in and out of the computers and starts to learn their codes, usernames, passwords, every scrap of information they unintentionally reveal.

He could probably hack into their mainframe if given the chance. He’d fry it to hell and back if they stopped drugging him up.

And that’s something they don’t seem to understand all that well, that whatever is in the black sludge they inject him with puts an absolute stop to his powers. The mating bond is fuzzy, there but unreachable, but Jongdae can’t even feel the static in the air anymore. So, when the experiments start to try and force his powers out of him, it’s all in vain.

They bring in dehumidifiers to suck all the moisture out of the room to create more static electricity. They drag live wires down his bare skin. They hook him up to a  _ fucking defibrilator _ . All to force his hand and make him bring down lightning. 

It never works. 

He’s as powerless as any other omega. Any strength in him is from years of training against Kyungsoo and the rest of the pack, and it fades fast after the excruciating attempt at shocking his powers out of him with the help of a generator meant to power an entire fucking hospital.

The only reason he even survives is that his body is made to withstand ungodly high-voltage. It hurts though. It fucking  _ hurts  _ and he screams in agony because he’s never been electrocuted before, but the only electricity in the room is from the scientists’ artifical sources. 

The scientists start to get desperate. They whisper about deadlines and funding and results when the soldiers are busy releasing Jongdae from that damned chair. They throw out words like  _ replication  _ and  _ cloning  _ as experiment after experiment fails.

It’s only after the generator experiment fails that Jongdae worries, because the scientists look at him with baleful, bloodshot eyes and whisper, “ _ Dissection.” _

The next time they come for him, flanked by two of the largest alphas Jongdae’s ever seen, he fights like hell. He snarls and bites, claws at the hands that drag him out of his room and down the halls to the examination room. Half-starved and weak, he still manages to land a hard kick to the omega scientist’s face, knocking her glasses off and bloodying her nose. It’s not enough to stop the soldiers though.

He’s strapped down to the chair much like he was when they pumped him full of red chemicals. He pants, terrified, writhing against the restraints until the leather straps begin to cut into his skin.

There are more soldiers than ever before, so many he can’t count squeezed into the room like sardines. 

“It could be a response to life-threatening injuries,” one of the two beta scientists explains to the mass of soldiers. “We have no way of knowing what his body will do to stay alive. I don’t think even his stubbornness can override basic self-preservation. That is why we need you all here. If he reacts the way we hypothesize, we will need all of you to subdue him again.”

One of the soldiers grimaces. “Omegas have lived through accidents that would kill any alpha or beta because of their capacity for adrenaline. What if his powers and shit get, like, ten times stronger because he’s scared? He could kill us all then.”

The scientists nod. “That is a risk we have to take. The Red Force wants results. We are expendable.”

“What if you actually kill him? Wouldn’t the Red Force be angry? They want him alive.”

“He is of no use to us alive,” the omega scientist holds a tissue to her nose while she speaks, trails of red flowing down her chin. “He’s completely uncooperative. If nothing else, we can use his body to make a new Chen, a better Chen. One more understanding of our mission. And, as a bonus, his death would likely incapacitate Xiumin and the mover.”

Jongdae’s never wanted to kill someone the way he wants to kill her in that moment, blood singing with rage. 

The other scientists give the soldiers instructions to stay back, stay alert. They say Jongdae’s lightning is unpredictable and wild and that it could strike at any place, any time once it starts.

Then, they approach him. They come forward with trays of scalpels and needles, tools designed to take him apart for easy viewing. They wear rubber gloves, likely have on rubber-soled shoes as well just in case he hit one of them. The dentist chair leans back until Jongdae is horizontal, staring up into the blinding lights above.

Jongdae can’t breathe. His air comes in pants and gasps, his entire body seizing with fear. He reaches into himself and searches desperately for even a shred of his power. He meets the wall of haze, of that fucking drug they give him every day. 

The scientists surround him. One stands on his left, the other on his right, and the last at his head. The one at his left picks up a scalpel from the tray beside him and holds it with practiced ease. The other two hold him down as if the leather restraints and steel handcuffs aren’t enough already.

“This should hurt. A lot,” the scientist sneers. He brings the scalpel down, pointing at Jongdae’s chest.

The world moves in slow-motion. The scalpel falls down towards him but it’s caught in a frozen river, decent all but stopped. 

For a moment, Jongdae wonders if it’s some sort of cruel tactic to force his hand, giving him time to call up a storm. But then he notices that the scientist above him hasn’t blinked. Their expressions haven’t changed in the slightest, cartoonishly wide evil smiles. Jongdae looks to the lone clock on the wall above the door and sees it’s completely stopped. Frozen in time.

It’s not the only thing freezing, either. Jongdae’s breaths are fast and heavy, uneven, and they hang in the air, puffs of frosty condensation. The examination room had always been chilly, but now cold seeps into his bare skin; it only gets colder with each passing heartbeat. The fluid in the IV drip behind the scientist on his right starts to freeze. The room gets cold, but Jongdae feels hopelessly, helplessly warm.

The unused instruments on the trays, the trays themselves, paper, pens, anything not bolted down rises up and hovers in the air. Jongdae smiles and shuts his eyes. He waits, counting down from ten inside his head. He’s only at five when he feels the temperature suddenly rise and he opens his eyes again.

Time restarts.

The doors blow off their hinges just as all the objects levitating in the air go flying off in all directions, random but controlled to do maximum damage. All three scientists are knocked clear off their feet by the heavy metal trays as the instruments embed themselves in the nearest soldiers. The rest hardly have a chance to collect themselves before they’re assaulted by fire, water, wind, and Kyungsoo just punching the shit out of anyone who gets too close to Chanyeol. 

Jongdae’s so happy to see them he could cry.

A crack of air displacing sounds by Jongdae’s head and turns his head to see one of the youngest members of his pack and he really does start to cry. Jongin is there with a tired smile on his face, bags under his eyes heavy and pronounced. “Hey,” Jongin says as he starts tugging at Jongdae’s restraints, “you look like shit.”

“Speak for yourself,” Jongdae croaks in response, voice hoarse and unused to speaking after so long. He hiccups as he takes in deep lungfuls of the beta’s clean, familiar scent. “You haven’t been sleeping.”

Jongin shrugs. “None of us have. I’ll sleep once we’re back home.” He fights with Jongdae’s handcuffs for a second before huffing and grabbing Jongdae by the arms before transporting him just a few inches above the dentist chair to free him. “Don’t know why I didn’t just do that first,” he mumbles to himself.

He might say something else, but Jongdae isn’t paying attention. He’s too busy throwing himself off the dentist chair and into waiting arms. 

His legs are too weak to hold his own weight, but that doesn’t matter; Minseok and Luhan are there to catch them. If Jongin looked bad, then Jongdae’s alphas look like death warmed over, deep, deep purple bruises under their eyes from lack of sleep and sickly pale skin. Jongdae still thinks they're the most handsome men he’s ever seen.

The moment they get their hands on him, pulling him so close it’s almost suffocating in the best way, the wall blocking off the mating bond is blown to pieces. His head fills up with sadness and worry and guilt and  _ relief _ . After being alone for so long it’s almost disorienting to have them back inside his head. He wouldn’t give it up for the world, though, reaching deeper and deeper into the bond until it feels like they’re one person.

“Jongdae! Oh God, Jongdae, you’re here. You’re okay. I never thought I’d see you again,” Minseok whispers. He presses quick, feather-light kisses along the side of Jongdae’s face, sniffing at his hairline. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”

“Okay.” Jongdae nods. He’ll rebel against that eventually, too independent and head-strong to be chained down for long, but for now, “Sounds good.”

Minseok lets out a watery laugh and holds Jongdae so tight his fingers press down painfully on old bruises. But Jongdae doesn’t complain, doesn’t want him to let go.

Luhan holds him even tighter. The alpha buries his face into Jongdae’s shoulder; the thin cotton turns damp with tears as Luhan’s shoulders shake. “I’m so sorry, Jongdae. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Jongdae rasps, nudges Luhan’s head up with his shoulder so he can kiss him, sighing softly into his alpha’s mouth. “My fault, not yours. I knew better.”

“But I couldn’t reach you.”

“Was my fault. I went out of range. And I’m okay. I’m okay.  _ We’re  _ okay.” Jongdae tips his head back so Luhan can hide his face in the crook of his neck and ascertain for himself that Jongdae is here, is okay, is  _ alive _ . Minseok just hums and leaves Luhan to it, much more preoccupied with kissing every bit of Jongdae’s face he can reach like he can stamp the smell of the scientists and the laboratory out of Jongdae’s skin.

“You  _ are _ okay, right,” comes a voice from behind him. Jongdae twists around in his alphas’ hold to see Yixing watching him with worry written all over his face. “Is there anything that needs immediate attention?” His gaze drifts to Jongdae’s arms and legs where bruises and cuts stand out clear against his uncomfortably pale skin.

Jongdae smiles. “Nothing life-threatening, Xingie. I can wait. Go make sure the rest of the pack is okay.” Yixing smiles back and darts in to kiss his forehead, Minseok huffing at another alpha in his space. 

Beyond Yixing, Baekhyun, Yifan, and Zitao are all standing at the control panel for the main block of computers. Baekhyun is hunched over the control panel with Yifan and Zitao flanking him on either side as guards . 

“We need to destroy whatever information they have on us,” Baekhyun yells over the sound of the pack working its way through the rest of the soldiers, “Dae, do you know any of the passwords?”

Jongdae does, but he’s too tired to think of them. Instead, he holds out a hand, “Back up.” 

Electricity arcs out from his fingertips to the control panel and fries the entire thing. It’s exhausting, body using up the last of its reserves to short-circuit the other two blocks of computers. 

“That’s one way to do it, I guess.” Yifan laughs and shakes his head, eyes fond as he turns to Jongdae with a smile, before he leads Baekhyun and Zitao over to help the rest of the pack with the last few soldiers. 

Jongdae slumps into Minseok and Luhan’s hold seconds later, panting like he’s just run a marathon. He’s had to subsist on a diet of liquids, something the Red Force could force-feed him easily in case he decided to fight back or starve himself, and it’s left him weak, dizzy, limbs shaking from overuse.

"Jongdae," Minseok starts. He cups Jongdae's face with one hand and tilts his head up because Jongdae's finding it hard to raise on his own. "God, Jongdae, what did they do to you?"

"I'm fine. I just—I want to go home, Minnie." He wasn't lying when he told Yixing that there was nothing life-threatening about his injuries, but pain burns through his every nerve. He aches down to the marrow of his bones and all he wants to do is lie down somewhere safe and warm. Lying down is optional, really, he'd be happy to fall asleep standing up just like this in his alphas' arms. "Please, take me home."

"We're all clear," Junmyeon calls. He's panting, leaning against Yixing's side as the rest of the pack dusts themselves off. They're all obviously exhausted, sluggish as they step out from the charred mess of the examination room, but thankfully unharmed. "Ready to go home?"

Jongdae nods. "More than you could ever know."

The moment is peaceful, quiet. It's a victory of the best kind, the pack unscathed and in need of nothing more than a long shower, a long nap, and a long night of pack bonding. Jongdae knows he's going to be the one stuck at the center of the next pack pile; he's looking forward to it.

An alarm sounds somewhere deep within the hallways. It echoes back towards Jongdae and his pack, as does the sound of many footsteps thundering towards them.

"Shit," Yifan is the first to react, shoving Sehun and Zitao forward, herding the pack towards the door. "Move out,  _ now!  _ We're too tired for another fight, go. Go!"

Arms sweep Jongdae's legs out from under him, tilt him back until he's cradled in Luhan's arms. "Let's go. Someone take point."

"Are you sure you can run with him," Yifan asks. Luhan nods, a determined set to his jaw even though Jongdae knows Luhan can't run like this. Yifan knows it too, urging Jongin closer with a hand on his back. "Maybe you should let Jongin take him."

Luhan shakes his head and tries running forward on his own but Jongdae's too heavy, too awkward to carry. Jongdae's head fills with fear and bone-eating guilt. He watches himself get hit with the tranquilizer, watches as Red Force soldiers swarm him and drag him off before anyone can reach him. "I'm not letting Jongdae out of my sight. Last time I did that we lost him. I'm not losing him again. I  _ can't— _ I can't lose you, Dae."

Jongdae doesn't know what to say. All he can think to do is press his forehead to Luhan's, offering some physical reminder that he's alive and well and not going anywhere anytime soon.

"Jongin is pack, love," Minseok steps in close to whisper into Luhan's ear. "He loves Jongdae almost as much as we do, you know that. He risked his life teleporting through an unknown, heavily guarded Red Force facility for him. Nini won't let anything hurt our Jongdae, Luhan, none of them will. The sooner you let him go, the sooner we can all get out of here."

Luhan doesn't fight when Jongin helps Jongdae out of the alpha's arms. But he looks so miserable, like being parted is physically painful.

Jongdae feels the loss like an ache in his chest, hardly able to stop himself from reaching for Minseok and Luhan again. "I'll be waiting for you, both of you. Love you."

"Love you too." Jongdae knows. His head is full of their love; he can feel it in every cell in his body, settling in the very core of his being and reminding him that he's okay. Minseok darts in to kiss Jongdae hard on the mouth for just a moment, Luhan following after, before they fall in line as Yifan and Junmyeon call for the pack to run.

"It's going to take us five jumps to get out of here," Jongin says, gripping Jongdae tight so that he doesn't lose him as the pack disappears out of the hole Kyungsoo blew in the wall when he punched the doors off their hinges, "so please close your eyes and don't throw up on me."

Jongdae nods and squeezes his eyes shut. "I'm ready. Get me out of here, Nini."

\---

Jongdae leans his head back against Minseok’s shoulder, sighing softly as fingers card through his hair and scratch against his scalp. Shampoo suds slip down his temples. Minseok is quick to sweep them away so they don’t run into his eyes.

“Are you falling asleep on us, Jongdae?” Jongdae nods. He smiles and squeaks when Luhan pinches at his sides. “Leave him be, Luhan. He deserves his rest.”

“I know,” Luhan sighs and settles both hands over Jongdae’s belly button. “I just wanted to bother him a little. Haven’t gotten the chance to tease him in a long time.”

Three months. That’s how long Jongdae was held prisoner inside that damn building, three whole months. It was one of the first questions he asked after the rest of his pack made it to the van they’d hidden a few miles away that's meant to drive them back across the border to China. Jongin slept the whole way so that he had enough energy to teleport them all home once they reached relative safety.

Question after question poured out of him as he sat curled up in Luhan’s lap with his legs over Minseok’s. Yixing sat on Luhan’s other side and did his best to heal the bruises and wounds left all over his skin. There are still a few yellowed bruises left, and nearly all the scars, but Yixing wore himself out healing what he could. Jongdae doesn’t mind. The physical pain is negligible now; it’s easy to ignore when he’s home. He’s home, and sitting in a nice, hot bath, leaning back against Minseok’s chest as he’s cleaned like the spoiled omega he claims not to be.

His alphas had argued about who got to hold him in the bathtub for longer than they should have before deciding that Minseok would hold him while he washed his hair and Luhan would hold him and clean his body. Jongdae just wants to be held.

"I'm tired," he mumbles, "Let me sleep."

Minseok chuckles and the sound makes Jongdae feel warm from the inside out. "But if you fall asleep, Luhan and I aren't going to want to make you get out and then we'll all get pruny."

Jongdae shrugs. What's the harm in being pruny for a little while when it means getting to stay like this? It's three grown men crammed into a bathtub hardly big enough for two, but Jongdae likes it this way. He likes how close he and his alphas have to be, breathing in lungfuls of their scents.

"We've spoiled him," Luhan teases. He still feels guilty about what happened, so guilty, but it seems to fade as they settle together, as Luhan realizes that Jongdae is really, truly okay. "He deserves a bit of spoiling though, doesn't he?"

"He deserves all the spoiling he wants."

Jongdae cracks an eye open at that. Minseok is staring down fondly at him, eyes soft as they roam across Jongdae's face. "You don't mean that," Jongdae croaks. His voice is still hoarse after three months— _ three months _ —of going unused. "Last time you promised to spoil me as much as I want you called me a needy, whiny baby."

"You  _ are _ a needy, whiny baby," Minseok agrees.

"But you're  _ our  _ needy, whiny baby. And we'd rather put up with any and all of your ridiculous demands than not have you here to make those ridiculous demands." It takes a bit of shifting on Minseok's part and a lot of straining on Luhan's, but Jongdae smiles when his alpha tilts his head back to kiss him square on the lips.

He drifts inside his own head, floating along gently on the waves of affection that Luhan pushes towards him as Minseok rinses the shampoo out of his hair.

It takes two washings to get it feeling clean and Jongdae doesn't want to think about how nasty the bathwater is going to turn once Luhan starts helping him clean his body. Three months of no basic hygiene and Jongdae can only wonder how his alphas didn't gag when they first got a whiff of him.

Luhan takes his sweet time to clean him too. He grabs the special, expensive soap they only use for special occasions and scrubs Jongdae from head to toe in slow, reverent motions.

"You're so weird," Jongdae can barely keep his eyes open even as he mocks his alpha. As weird as the attention is, it feels  _ so nice _ to be taken care of like this.

Luhan huffs and presses a few aggressive kisses to Jongdae's cheeks. "Calling me weird when we all know Minseok's going to mark the hell out of your neck as soon as we get settled in bed." Minseok makes a wounded noise, probably offended that he was drawn into Jongdae and Luhan's bickering the way he always is. "We all have our coping mechanisms, let me have mine."

And Jongdae just nods and squirms until his back is flush against Luhan's chest. "Love you."

"Love you too, Dae."

They'd rescued him in the middle of the night, whatever operation the scientists had planned was likely not something the Red Force had approved of, and it's early evening now; he'd slept for nearly the entire thirteen-hour drive back across the border to China but he's still so tired.

Once the bathwater starts to turn cold, Minseok and Luhan help him out of the bath. They have to take turns supporting his weight as they all dry off and change into pajamas—they have to help Jongdae into his, a pair of Luhan's sweatpants and one of Minseok's shirts from university.

He reeks of his alphas and he  _ loves _ it.

He can't help but moan when he's gently tossed onto the bed. The mattress is heavenly underneath him and he thinks he would fall asleep in an instant if it weren't for Minseok and Luhan crawling in after him, caging him in between their bodies, and sucking dark marks over the scars on his neck.

It's normal for mates to leave secondary marks over claiming bites during times of stress, a way of reminding themselves and their mates that the claim is still there. Jongdae's alphas, Minseok in particular, tend to leave as many marks behind as they possibly can.

Jongdae's neck is going to be  _ covered  _ in purple bruises come the morning. The idea of it makes him smile, makes him feel cherished and safe and so, so loved.

He lets out little purrs, tilts his head back to give Minseok and Luhan more access. The mating bond alights with a thousand different emotions, golden and warm behind Jongdae's eyes.

"We still need to talk about what happened," Luhan pulls away from Jongdae's neck to kiss him on the lips, going up on his elbows to hold eye contact even when Jongdae tries to hide. "We'll do it at your pace, but we can't just sweep this under the rug, my love."

"We will love you no matter what, you know that. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You survived, and that is all we could ever ask of you." Minseok's voice catches in his throat, "You came home to us. That's all we'll ever need."

Jongdae bites his bottom lip and tries his hardest to fight back tears. They fall anyway, and Luhan and Minseok are quick to kiss them away.

"Tomorrow," he says, "I'll tell you anything you want to know tomorrow. Just—tonight, just hold me. I just want you to hold me."

_ lovemeplease _

They shift around in the bed until Jongdae is absolutely, completely stuck between his alphas, unable to move even if he wanted to. He doesn't want to.

_ wedoloveyou _

_ wedowedowedo _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! If you liked this, please leave a kudos and a comment! You can find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/killmeDO) and [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/killmeDO) Sometimes I talk about what I'm working on next and post snippets! I'd love to hear from you <3


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